ConservativeHome’s tip of the week is to recommend a subscription to The Business. It’s a great read every week with insightful analysis of the economy, domestic politics and international affairs. Its free market, Eurosceptic worldview should hold many attractions for Conservatives. Allister Heath has just become the magazine’s Editor. At just 29 it’s a rapid promotion but Allister is largely responsible for The Business’ edgy, must-read commentary. My warmest congratulations to him.

This week’s Business (not yet online) contains an editorial in defence of The Union between Scotland and the rest of the UK. The editorial concludes with a brief survey of the dangers of separation for England:

Probable loss of the UK’s seat on the UN Security Council;

Without Scotland there is nowhere to base the nuclear deterrent;

Around one-third of the British Army’s fighting force is Scottish;

The end of North Sea oil and gas.

Its conclusion:

"Scotland without England, of course, would be an irrelevance; a diminshed state on the margins of Europe in thrawl to a burned-out socialist ideology. But England would be the loser too, in prestige, importance and power. The truth is that, 300 years on, both have more to gain by being together than drifting apart. The remedy to the discontent that will sour the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union is not divorce but marriage counselling… England needs to realise that it will lose a lot more than it thinks if it loses Scotland. The Scots need to realise that they cannot live off massive public spending forever. A sense of fairness must be reintroduced between both nations."